Tomorrow night’s Strikeforce card is ripe full with MMA goodness, and although we’re pretty damn excited about Jake Shields vs. Dan Henderson and Gegard Mousasi vs. “King Mo” Lawal, any regular reader here knows were pretty stoked to see Shinya Aoki’s Strikeforce debut against Gilbert Melendez. This is a guy that rocks rainbow colored spandex pants, has arguably the sport’s greatest submission highlight reel, and to top it off, he might just be crazy (unless flipping someone off after you break their arm is considered ‘well adjusted’…not exactly endearing behaviour)
Now Melendez is no joke; the Cesar Gracie fighter is not only one of the world’s best lightweights, like Aoki, he’s one of the division’s most entertaining fighters to watch. On paper, Melendez should be able to cruise to victory if he can keep the fight standing, but to Aoki’s credit, the Dream champion has a knack for getting the fight to the mat. Despite Aoki’s renowned ‘dude you gotta see this sh-t’ ground game, Melendez isn’t exactly a stranger to jiu-jitsu either, something he pointed out this week in an interview with 5thround.com.
“I’ve been training [my jiu jitsu] 7-8 hard years, I’ve been training with [Nick and Nate Diaz],” Melendez told 5thRound.com of his extensive knowledge. “I’ve seen his rubber guard; I’ve seen it for years. It’s nothing new to me.”
Melendez makes a hell of a point, not to mention that he trains with Shields as well, another guy that has spent more time on the mat than an entire high school wrestling team put together. To bet on the tilt head here.